McClatchy-Marist Poll: Majority of Americans Reject Obama ISIS Policy

Just over half of Americans disapprove of President Barack Obama's foreign policy in general, and his efforts against the Islamic State group (ISIS) in particular, a new poll shows.

The McClatchy-Marist poll finds 56 percent disapprove of the president's handling of ISIS, with the same percentage down on his foreign policy.

"People are dismayed over Obama’s handling of ISIS, but they do want action," Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in New York, which conducted the survey, tells McClatchyDC.com.

Yet 62 percent want their representatives in Congress to vote for Obama’s proposal to use military force against the Islamic State, with support crossing party and ideological lines, the survey shows: Two-thirds of moderates and conservatives approve, as do 54 percent of liberals, the poll finds.

And Americans also back boots on the ground, the survey finds: one-fourth would send a large number of U.S. ground forces, while another 41 percent prefer a limited number, the survey finds.

The outcome of Obama's request for a fight against the jihadists is murky, Miringoff says.

"There’s going to be a foreign policy division in the Republican Party," he predicts.

According to the survey, half of the GOP supporters of the tea party back a large number of ground troops; support drops to 30 percent among Republicans who don’t back the tea party.

Americans also are warming up to the Republican-controlled Congress, the poll finds, with one-third approving of the job the party is doing — significantly increased from their 22 percent approval rating in August.

Congressional Democrats’ approval rating is at 30 percent, up slightly from December, the poll finds.

The survey did not figure a margin of error for the results, instead reporting "statistically significant" results: Overall, results are statistically significant within 2.8 percentage points for overall responses; 3 percent for registered voters; and between 4.6 and 4.7 percent for political party subsets.